When
studying poetry, it is useful first of all to consider the theme
and the overall development of the theme in the poem. Obviously, the
sort of development that takes place depends to a considerable extent
on the type of poem one is dealing with. It is useful to keep two general
distinctions in mind (for more detailed definitions consult Abrams 1999
and Preminger et al 1993): lyric poetry and narrative poetry.

Lyric
Poetry

Alyric poem is a comparatively
short, non-narrative poem in which a single speaker presents a state
of mind or an emotional state. Lyric poetry retains some of the elements
of song which is said to be its origin: For Greek writers the lyric
was a song accompanied by the lyre.

Subcategories
of the lyric are, for example elegy, ode, sonnet and dramatic monologue
and most occasional poetry:

In
modern usage, elegy is a formal lament for the death
of a particular person (for example Tennyson’s
In Memoriam A.H.H.). More broadly defined, the term elegy is
also used for solemn meditations, often on questions of death, such
as Gray's
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

Anode is a long lyric poem with a serious subject written
in an elevated style. Famous examples are Wordsworth’s
Hymn to Duty or Keats’
Ode to a Grecian Urn.

Thesonnet was originally a love poem which dealt with
the lover’s sufferings and hopes. It originated in Italy and became
popular in England in the Renaissance, when Thomas
Wyatt and the Earl
of Surrey translated and imitated the sonnets written by Petrarch
(Petrarchan sonnet). From the seventeenth century onwards
the sonnet was also used for other topics than love, for instance for
religious experience (by Donne
and Milton),
reflections on art (by Keats
or Shelley)
or even the war experience (by Brooke
or Owen).
The sonnet uses a single stanza of (usually) fourteen lines and an intricate
rhyme pattern (see stanza
forms). Many poets wrote a series of sonnets linked by the
same theme, so-called sonnet cycles (for instance Petrarch,
Spenser,
Shakespeare,
Drayton, Barret-Browning,
Meredith)
which depict the various stages of a love relationship.

In
a dramatic monologue a speaker, who is explicitly someone
other than the author, makes a speech to a silent auditor in a specific
situation and at a critical moment. Without intending to do so, the
speaker reveals aspects of his temperament and character. In Browning's
My Last Duchess for instance, the Duke shows the picture of
his last wife to the emissary from his prospective new wife and reveals
his excessive pride in his position and his jealous temperament.

Occasional
poetry is written for a specific occasion: a wedding (then
it is called an epithalamion, for instance Spenser’s
Epithalamion), the return of a king from exile (for instance
Dryden’s
Annus Mirabilis) or a death (for example Milton’s
Lycidas), etc.

Narrative Poetry

Narrative poetry gives a verbal
representation, in verse, of a sequence of connected events, it propels
characters through a plot. It is always told by a narrator. Narrative
poems might tell of a love story (like Tennyson's
Maud), the story of a father and son (like Wordsworth's
Michael) or the deeds of a hero or heroine (like Walter
Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel).

Sub-categories
of narrative poetry:

Epics usually operate on a large
scale, both in length and topic, such as the founding of a nation (Virgil’s
Aeneid) or the beginning of world history (Milton's
Paradise Lost), they tend to use an elevated style of language
and supernatural beings take part in the action.

Themock-epic makes use of epic
conventions, like the elevated style and the assumption that the topic
is of great importance, to deal with completely insignificant occurrences.
A famous example is Pope's
The Rape of the Lock, which tells the story of a young beauty
whose suitor secretly cuts off a lock of her hair.

Aballad is a song, originally transmitted
orally, which tells a story. It is an important form of folk poetry
which was adapted for literary uses from the sixteenth century onwards.
The ballad stanza is usually a four-line stanza, alternating tetrameter
and trimeter.

Descriptive
and Didactic Poetry

Both
lyric and narrative poetry can contain lengthy and detailed descriptions
(descriptive poetry) or scenes in direct speech (dramatic
poetry).

The
purpose of a didactic poem is primarily to teach something.
This can take the form of very specific instructions, such as how to
catch a fish, as in James
Thomson’s The Seasons (Spring 379-442) or
how to write good poetry as in Alexander
Pope’s Essay on Criticism. But it can also be meant
as instructive in a general way. Until the twentieth
century all literature was expected to have a didactic purpose in a
general sense, that is, to impart moral, theoretical or even practical
knowledge; Horace
famously demanded that poetry should combine prodesse
(learning) and delectare (pleasure). The twentieth
century was more reluctant to proclaim literature openly as a teaching
tool.